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Welcome to The Julia Roberts Picture
Pages!
Ever since she lit up the screen as
the streetwalking Cinderella who wins the heart of
millionaire Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, Julia
Roberts has been hailed as one of the brightest stars in
cinema today. Even when she's not making movies — some
might say especially when she's not making movies —
Roberts makes headlines, as tabloid paparazzi feverishly
document the nitty-gritty details of her personal life.
When she had a beer with the regulars at Manhattan's
Hogs & Heifers club and — in keeping with one of that
hotspot's more notorious customs — discreetly donated
her bra to the bar's permanent collection of patron
undergarments, dutiful gossip columnists rushed to
inform an anxiously awaiting public that the actress
wears a size 34B. While her popularity at the box office
has tailed off since her star-confirming role in Pretty
Woman, Roberts' numerous romantic entanglements with
fellow celebrities have kept her squarely beneath the
lens of the celebrity microscope — with everyone from
Sean Penn to Matthew Perry in her past, the rumor mill
starts to grind away if she so much as shares a
handshake with a male of note. No longer the
fresh-faced, bubbly ingenue who became a two-time Oscar
nominee before the age of 24, Roberts nonetheless
remains a huge draw at the box office and still commands
one of the highest salaries in Hollywood.
That girl-next-door persona that made
Roberts famous has roots in reality: she was born in the
small-townish Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, Georgia, the
daughter of a vacuum salesman and a church secretary.
Her parents divorced when she was 4, and her father,
with whom Roberts shared a deep attachment, died of
cancer when she was just 9 (Roberts has claimed that his
passage "has altered every philosophy of life [she's]
ever had"). Though both mom and dad were experienced
thespians — the Robertses had even conducted a workshop
for actors and playwrights for several years prior to
their daughter's birth — Julia grew up hoping to become
a veterinarian. That dream lasted until she graduated
from high school, whereupon, at the tender age of 17,
she joined her actress sister Lisa in New York to pursue
a career in acting. Roberts signed on with the Click
modeling agency to pay the bills, and enrolled in
several acting classes, none of which she found
enlightening enough to complete. Nepotism got Roberts
her first big break in 1986, when older brother Eric
convinced director Eric Masterson to cast his little
sister as, well, his little sister in the sun-ripened
winery drama Blood Red. The film got shelved
shortly after it was finished (it was finally released
in theaters in 1990), and Roberts didn't end up making
her professional debut until 1988, when she appeared on
an episode of television's Crime Story.
That same year, Roberts took a bow in
two feature films, the forgettable Satisfaction
and the whimsical Mystic Pizza, the latter of
which presented the breakout opportunity of her career.
Playing the role of a Portuguese waitress in a
small-town pizzeria, Roberts walked away with the movie
and won raves from critics across the nation. The
starmaking buzz increased in volume following an
Oscar-nominated turn as a doomed bride in 1989's
Steel Magnolias, and hit a fever pitch the next year
when Pretty Woman arrived in theaters and
transformed a promising young actress into a bona fide
superstar. Believe it or not, Pretty Woman was
originally envisioned as a bleak character drama (think
Leaving Las Vegas), and it was while the project
was in its infancy that Roberts won the part of hooker
Vivian Ward, a role she admits she "chased down like a
dog." Shortly thereafter, the script was purchased by
Disney, and those interfering busybodies decided to turn
it into a sunny romantic comedy.. A reluctant Roberts
surrendered to this new vision at the urging of director
Garry Marshall, and good thing she did — the film soared
to record-setting heights at the box office and garnered
a Best Actress Oscar nomination for its star.
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